Local visual artist Augustin Hakizimana is in Tokyo, Japan, where he is expected to take part in a joint exhibition with Japanese artist Shibata Tomoyuki. The exhibition named “Freedom & Freedom” will run from May 3 to 5, 2016, at Ishiyama, Minami-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Hakizimana says that the exhibition is a chance for both artists to showcase, through art, the progress both countries have made after undergoing devastating periods of upheaval and how they managed to rise from the rubble to rebuild themselves. One of Hakizimanas paintings. (Courtesy) Rwanda is currently holding the 22nd commemoration period to remember over one million people killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Japan on the other hand rose from the ashes to build a modern industrial state after the events of August 1945 during the final stages of the Second World War, when two nuclear bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 129,000 people. “This is an opportunity to showcase the reconstruction of Rwanda through art and the remarkable journey of recovery the country took after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi,” said Hakizimana. The three-day exhibition will feature a short theatre of the Umugani story by Tomoyuki and live paintings by Hakizimana. In the play Umugani, also known as “Hyena and Goats”, Tomoyuki will express his thoughts on “life, born and die”, “destroy and creation”, while Hakizimana, through his live paintings, will show the progress Rwanda has achieved over the years after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Some of Shibata Tomoyukis paintings that will be showcased during the exhibition. (Courtesy) The Uburanga based visual artist is also collaborating with local rapper and visual artist Joshua Tuyishime, aka Jay Polly, in an exhibition dubbed “Local, Urban Progress”, where his artwork depicts the developments in the countryside, while Jay Polly’s work showcases the development being carried out in Kigali. The month-long exhibition is ongoing at Hotel des Mille Collines by Kempinski. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
